June 23

Peas Manager Charged In Perez Hilton Fight

Toronto police have charged the manager of chart-topping hip-hop band the Black Eyed Peas with assault after a confrontation with celebrity blogger Perez Hilton at Sunday’s MuchMusic Video Awards.

Liborio Molina, 36, was ordered to appear at Old City Hall in Toronto on August 5 to answer the assault charge.

Hilton first alerted the police via Twitter that he had apparently been involved in an altercation with the Black Eyed Peas entourage at an awards show afterparty during the early hours of Monday morning.

“I’m in shock. I need the police ASAP. Please come to the Soho Metropolitan Hotel now. Please,” Hilton tweeted at around 3 a.m., according to local media reports.

Hilton’s next message alleged that he had been assaulted by will.i.am of Black Eyed Peas and his security guards. “I am bleeding. Please, I need to file a police report. No joke,” he added.

Will.i.am reportedly created his own Twitter account to deny Hilton’s story.

Hilton was a presenter at the MuchMusic Video Awards, and Black Eyed Peas performed and picked up an award for best international video group for their hit “Boom Boom Pow,” which has spent 11th weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.

Ed McMahon, who for nearly 30 years was Johnny Carson’s affable second banana on “The Tonight Show,” introducing it with his ringing trademark call, “Heeeere’s Johnny!,” died early Tuesday in Los Angeles. He was 86.

His publicist, Howard Bragman, told NBC that Mr. McMahon died at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center surrounded by his family. Mr. Bragman did not give a cause of death, saying only that Mr. McMahon had a “multitude of health problems the last few months.”

A person close to Mr. McMahon, speaking anonymously because he was not authorized to release information, said Mr. McMahon had bone cancer, among other ailments, The Associated Press reported. In February he had been hospitalized with pneumonia, Mr. Bragman told CNN.

With his broad, genial, regular-guy features, Mr. McMahon had the face of someone you would buy a used car from. Indeed, for decades he was one of television’s most ubiquitous pitchmen, selling everything from boats to beer. He also took a few acting roles and in later years was the host of the television talent show “Star Search” and wrote some popular books, includinghis memoirs.

But it was in the role of the faithful Tonto to Carson’s wry Lone Ranger that Mr. McMahon made his sideman’s mark. After he rolled out his introduction like a red carpet for the boss, and after Carson delivered his nightly monologue, Mr. McMahon, in jacket and tie, would take his seat on the couch beside the host’s desk, chat and banter with Carson a bit before the guests came on and almost invariably guffaw at his jokes, even when he was the butt of them. When the guests did arrive, he would slide over to make room and rarely interrupt.

The work paid handsomely — some reports said $5 million a year — and it made Mr. McMahon a familiar face, and voice, in millions of households. “The Tonight Show” became the country’s most popular late-night television diversion, and the “Heeeere’s Johnny” introduction became a national catchphrase.

“I laugh for an hour and then go home,” Mr. McMahon once said. “I’ve got the world’s greatest job.”

Off camera he and Carson were friends and occasional drinking buddies, although Mr. McMahon noted that Carson, who died in 2005, was not terribly social. “He doesn’t give friendship easily or need it,” he said. “He packs a tight suitcase.”

Mr. McMahon rarely ran the risk of upstaging Carson. “To me, he’s the star and I’m on the sidelines, just nudging him a bit,” he said. But early in their association he slipped up.

It happened one night when Carson was telling the audience about a study concluding that mosquitoes preferred to bite “warm-blooded, passionate people.” Before Carson could deliver his punch line, Mr. McMahon slapped his own arm, as if crushing a mosquito. The audience roared. Carson coolly produced a giant can of insect spray from under his desk and said, glaring at Mr. McMahon, “I guess I won’t be needing this prop, will I?”

It was a rare flare-up in an association that began in the late 1950s, when Carson was the host of the ABC comedy quiz show “Do You Trust Your Wife?” and Mr. McMahon was hired to announce the show and read the commercials. (The title was later changed to “Who Do You Trust?”) In 1962, when Carson moved to “The Tonight Show,” replacing Jack Paar, he took Mr. McMahon with him.

Mr. McMahon warmed up the studio audience, read commercials and served as Carson’s straight man until Carson left the show in 1992. Though Mr. McMahon sometimes projected the image of an amiable lush and got laughs for it, the cup that was always before him on “The Tonight Show” held only iced tea, he said. Years later, he said he had missed only three tapings in 30 years, because of colds or the flu.

Edward Leo Peter McMahon Jr. was born in Detroit on March 6, 1923. His father, a vaudevillian, had to move a lot to find work, and young Ed had attended 15 high schools by the time he was a senior. Edward Sr.’s career was so erratic that one year, awash in money, the McMahons lived in the Mark Hopkins hotel, atop Nob Hill in San Francisco; another year, flat broke, they existed in a cold-water flat in Bayonne, N.J.

As a boy in Bayonne, Mr. McMahon recalled, he dreamed of becoming an entertainer and did imitations of stars, using a flashlight as his microphone and his dog, Valiant Prince, as his audience. He shined shoes, sold newspapers, dug ditches, sold peanuts, worked as an usher, labored on a construction gang and sold stainless-steel cookware door to door.

At his request he spent his last high school years in Lowell, Mass., where his grandmother lived. By the time he was 18 he had been a traveling bingo announcer in New England and had sold a gadget called the Morris Metric Slicer to tourists on the Atlantic City Boardwalk and in Times Square. He also took elocution lessons at Emerson College in Boston.

Mr. McMahon enlisted in the Marine Corps toward the end of World War II and became a fighter pilot, but did not see combat. After his discharge he attended the Catholic University of America in Washington, receiving a bachelor’s degree in 1949. He then landed a job at a Philadelphia radio station and began appearing on television as, among other things, a clown and the host of a cooking show.

But his budding television career was interrupted when he was recalled into military service during the Korean War. He flew 85 combat missions in 15 months, winning six Air Medals, and remained active in the Marine Corps Reserve afterward.

Returning from the war, he resumed his television work in Philadelphia while traveling to New York hoping to break into network television. He also pursued a separate career as a businessman. By the time he made it as an announcer, he had acquired a stationery company, a company that made knickknacks, two television and film companies and a talent agency. He also speculated in real estate.

Even when he got his big break with Carson, he never let up on his business activities. Carson would tweak him about them on “The Tonight Show,” suggesting that after that night’s show was over, Mr. McMahon would be selling jams and jellies in the elevator.

Over the years Mr. McMahon became a paid spokesman for many products and companies, including Budweiser beer, Alpo dog food, Chris-Craft boats, Texas Instruments, Breck shampoo, Sara Lee baked goods and Mercedes-Benz. His name and photograph were fixtures on the form letters mailed by American Family Publishers announcing sweepstakes winners. He marketed his own brand of liquor, McMahon Perfect Vodka. Most recently, he and the rapper MC Hammer promoted a gold-buying business called Cash4Gold.

And for more than 40 years, Mr. McMahon appeared with Jerry Lewis on Mr. Lewis’s Muscular Dystrophy Association telethon over Labor Day Weekend. He did some acting as well. Among the movies he appeared in were “The Incident” (1967), in which he played a passenger brutalized by young thugs on a New York subway train; “Slaughter’s Big Rip-Off” (1973); and “Fun With Dick and Jane” (1977).

After leaving “The Tonight Show,” Mr. McMahon appeared in summer stock and kept his hand in television. He was the host of the talent show “Star Search”; he joined Dick Clark on “TV’s Bloopers and Practical Jokes”; he was Tom Arnold’s sidekick on the short-lived sitcom “The Tom Show.” For the USA Radio Network, he broadcast “Ed McMahon’s Lifestyles Live” weekly from his home.

There were books, too, most recently the best-selling “Here’s Johnny! My Memories of Johnny Carson, the Tonight Show, and 46 Years of Friendship” (2005). Others were “For Laughing Out Loud: My Life and Good Times” (1998), written with David Fisher; “Ed McMahon’s Barside Companion” (1969); and “Here’s Ed, or How to Be a Second Banana, From Midway to Midnight” (1976).

Despite his many business ventures, Mr. McMahon encountered hard times in his last years. He was forced to sell his Beverly Hills mansion last year after falling behind in payments on $4.8 million in mortgages, and a former lawyer sued him for nonpayment of fees.

Mr. McMahon blamed two divorces, bad money management and bad investments for his woes. “I made a lot of money, but you can spend a lot of money,” he said by way of explanation.

He was plagued by health problems as well, undergoing a series of operations after breaking his neck in a fall in 2007.

Mr. McMahon married Alyce Ferrell during World War II. They were divorced in 1976. They had four children, Claudia, Michael, Linda and Jeffrey. His second marriage, to Victoria Valentine, in 1976, ended in divorce in 1989. They adopted a daughter, Katherine Mary McMahon. Mr. McMahon and his third wife, Pam Hurn, a fashion designer, were married in 1992.

Mr. McMahon regarded his friendship with Johnny Carson as a marriage of sorts. “Most comic teams are not good friends or even friends at all,” he wrote in “Here’s Johnny.” “Laurel and Hardy didn’t hang out together, Abbott and Costello weren’t best of friends.” But, he added, “Johnny and I were the happy exception.”

”For 40 years Johnny and I were as close as two nonmarried people can be,” he wrote. “And if he heard me say that, he might say, ‘Ed, I always felt you were my insignificant other.’ “

Today is Tuesday, June 23, the 174th day of 2009. There are 191 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History

On June 23, 1969, Warren E. Burger was sworn in as chief justice of the United States by the man he was succeeding, Earl Warren.

On this date:

In 1314, the Battle of Bannockburn, a decisive engagement in Scottish history whereby the Scots defeated the English, regained their independence, and established Robert the Bruce as Robert I.

In 1298, German King Adolf of Nassau was deposed in favour of Albert I.

In 1611, the mutinous crew of English explorer Henry Hudson, after a harsh winter with their ship frozen in Hudson Bay, puts Hudson and eight others adrift in a small boat. They are never seen again. (Source: Encarta; June 22, according to Britannica.)

In 1757, forces of the East India Company led by Robert Clive won the Battle of Plassey, which effectively marked the beginning of British colonial rule in India.

In 1845, the Congress of the Republic of Texas agrees to join the United States, following the wishes of the republic’s leading figure, Sam Houston.

In 1848, during a year of revolution throughout Europe, French working-class radicals clash with government forces in the first of the June Days, in which thousands of workmen are killed.

In 1868, Christopher Latham Sholes received a patent for his “Type-Writer.” His design is later produced by the Remington company.

In 1892, the Democratic convention in Chicago nominated former President Grover Cleveland on the first ballot.

In 1894, Edward VIII, the British monarch who abdicated in 1936 in order to marry American Wallis Simpson, was born.

In 1925, an expedition under A.H. MacCarthy and H.F. Lambert became the first to reach the summit of Mount Logan, the second highest mountain in North America.

In 1931, aviators Wiley Post and Harold Gatty took off from New York on a round-the-world flight that lasted eight days and 15 hours.

In 1938, the Civil Aeronautics Authority was established.

In 1947, the Senate joined the House in overriding President Harry S. Truman’s veto of the Taft-Hartley Act, designed to limit the power of organized labor.

In 1956, Gamal Abdel Nasser was elected president of Egypt.

In 1961, the Antarctic Treaty (signed Dec. 1, 1959) comes into effect. It pledges the 12 signatory nations to nonpolitical, scientific investigation of the continent and bars any military activity.

In 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson and Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin held the first of two meetings at Glassboro State College in New Jersey. The Senate voted to censure Democrat Thomas J. Dodd of Connecticut for using campaign money for personal uses.

In 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and White House chief of staff H.R. Haldeman discussed a plan to use the CIA to obstruct the FBI’s Watergate investigation. (Revelation of the tape recording of this conversation sparked Nixon’s resignation in 1974.)

In 1983, Pope John Paul II meets banned union leader Walesa.

In 1985, all 329 people aboard an Air India Boeing 747 were killed when the plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near Ireland, after a bomb planted by Sikh separatists exploded.

In 1989, the Supreme Court refused to shut down the “dial-a-porn” industry, ruling Congress had gone too far in passing a law banning all sexually oriented phone message services.

In 1992, John Gotti, convicted of racketeering charges, was sentenced in New York to life in prison.

In 1993, Lorena Bobbitt of Prince William County, Va., sexually mutilated her husband, John, after he allegedly raped her.

In 1994, the Nigerian military regime led by Sani Abacha arrests Moshood Abiola after he declares himself president of the country. Abiola was the apparent winner of the suspended presidential election in 1993.

In 1995, Dr. Jonas Salk, the medical pioneer who developed the first vaccine against polio, died at age 80.

In 1999, ten years ago: A divided Supreme Court dramatically enhanced states’ rights in a trio of decisions that eroded Congress’ power. U.S. Marines in Kosovo killed one person and wounded two others after coming under fire; no Marines were injured. Two months after his retirement, Wayne Gretzky was voted into the Hockey Hall of Fame along with former referee Andy Van Hellemond and Ian (Scotty) Morrison in the builder category.

In 2004, five years ago: In a major retreat, the United States abandoned an attempt to win a new exemption for American troops from international prosecution for war crimes — an effort that had faced strong opposition because of the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal.

In 2005, former Ku Klux Klansman Edgar Ray Killen was sentenced to 60 years in prison for the 1964 Mississippi slayings of three civil rights workers.

In 2008, one year ago: Outraged at the turmoil in Zimbabwe, the U.N. Security Council declared that a fair presidential vote was impossible because of a “campaign of violence” waged by President Robert Mugabe’s government. Seattle’s Felix Hernandez hit the first grand slam by an American League pitcher in 37 years, then departed with a sprained ankle before he could qualify for a win in the Mariners’ 5-2 victory over the New York Mets.

The New York Times leads with Iran’s powerful Guardian Council announcing that it found some irregularities in the June 12 polls. The council said that the number of votes in 50 districts was greater than the number of eligible voters by 3 million, not enough to overturn the supposed landslide victory of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The Los Angeles Times catches late-breaking news that the council rejected demands that the vote be annulled, saying it found no evidence of “major” irregularities. “Fortunately, in the recent presidential election we found no witness of major fraud or breach in the election,” said the council’s spokesman. The Wall Street Journal leads its world-wide newsbox with security forces quickly breaking up protests in Tehran yesterday, which were much smaller than recent demonstrations.

A group of around 1,000 demonstrators—some, including the LAT, put the number at “200 or so”—gathered in central Tehran yesterday but were easily dispersed by security forces that were present in large numbers. Earlier in the day, the Revolutionary Guards posted a message on their Web site, warning that protesters would face “revolutionary confrontation.” Officials also announced they would set up a special court to deal with the protesters. But opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi encouraged supporters to keep protesting. The NYT notes that opposition leaders think their next move is likely to be civil disobedience or a general strike.

The WSJ talks to Iranians who feel the stakes are higher now and are questioning whether to go back to the streets. “It’s now crossed the line, if you come out it means you are ready to become a martyr and I’m not so sure I want to die yet,” a 33-year-old woman said. The LAT also catches signs that “the protesters’ enthusiasm was tapering off,” reporting that when police grabbed a man who was wearing green close to Tehran University, none of the nearby pedestrians said anything. While officials publicly state they arrested 457 people on Saturday, the LAT has a source inside the notorious Evin Prison that says the real figure is closer to 1,000.

Even though the Guardian Council recognized that the number of votes in 50 districts exceeded the number of voters, it said that was possible because Iranians can vote anywhere they choose. But analysts immediately raised doubts about this theory, noting that many of the places that recorded irregularities aren’t exactly popular among business travelers or tourists. Regardless, with today’s announcement by the council that it had found “no major fraud” in the election, it seems any hopes that a compromise could be reached are now out the window.

Security forces in Iran blocked a memorial service scheduled yesterday afternoon for Neda Agha-Soltan, the young woman killed Saturday who has become a symbol of the opposition’s struggle after her death was captured on video. The NYT and LAT both front separate stories on Neda, which means voice in Persian. Her friends and family are mostly afraid to speak to the media. The only person who spoke on the record was her friend and music teacher who was next to her when she was shot. The government ordered the family to bury Neda immediately and forbade them from holding a memorial service. The LAT has the most details about the young woman, who loved music and traveling. Everyone emphasizes that she was far from a political activist and only attended the protest because she was upset about the election results. The NYT points out that “[f]unerals have long served as a political rallying point in Iran, since it is customary to have a week of mourning and a large memorial service 40 days after a death,” a cycle that was particularly important during the 1979 revolution.

Neda may be the most famous victim from Saturday’s clashes, but she was hardly the only one. The WSJ‘s Farnaz Fassihi talks to one family whose 19-year-old son was shot in the head on Saturday as he returned from acting classes. Kaveh Alipour’s wedding was scheduled for the following week. Family and friends say they suspect he was caught in the crossfire since he hadn’t participated in any of the protests that had taken place all week. Once he discovered his son’s fate, Alipour’s father was told that he had to pay a $3,000 “bullet fee” before he was allowed to take his body. He was finally allowed to take the body without paying as long as the family promised not to hold a funeral or burial in Tehran.

In a front-page piece, the WP takes a look at how Republicans have been criticizing President Obama for failing to give more direct encouragement to the protesters in Tehran. The unrest in Iran has put on display the differences between how the Obama administration and Republicans “view the nature of American power and the president’s role in speaking to political dissent” around the world. Republicans have been quick to seize on Cold War imagery, but the administration says that comparing the Iranian protesters with Communist bloc dissidents is an oversimplification that doesn’t take into account how the world has changed since the fall of the Soviet Union. “We’re trying to promote a foreign policy that advances our interests, not that makes us feel good about ourselves,” said a senior administration official.

Metro Subway Train Collision

The Washington Post leads with the collision between two Metro subway trains that killed six people—authorities have since increased the death toll to nine—during rush hour yesterday. One Red Line train crashed into the back of another between the Takoma and Fort Totten stations. The impact was so powerful that one subway car was fully on top of the other train. It was the deadliest accident in Metrorail’s history.

Foreclosure crisis is spreading

USA Today leads with numbers that show the foreclosure crisis is spreading. According to the paper’s analysis, the “foreclosure rates in 40 of the nation’s counties that have the most households have already doubled from last year.” This latest increase in foreclosures is due more to the recession and increasing unemployment than to subprime mortgages.

LA Mayor Villaraigosa will not run for California Governor

The LAT leads with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s announcement that he will not be competing in the 2010 race for California governor.

Supreme Court Decision on Voting Rights Act of 1965

The NYT, LAT, and WP front the Supreme Court’s decision to not strike down a key provision in the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The 8-1 decision was surprising because many had expected the court to rule that Section 5 of the voting rights law is unconstitutional. The provision requires several state and local governments, mostly in the South, to seek federal approval for any changes in election laws or voting procedures. Instead, the justices decided that certain municipalities could ask to be exempt from the provision. Still, many think it’s only a matter of time before the justices take a broader stance. “I tend to think the Voting Rights Act is living on borrowed time,” said one law professor.

Chris Brown Pleaded Guilty

The LAT and WP report news that singer Chris Brown pleaded guilty to assaulting pop star Rihanna. Brown’s plea deal allowed him to avoid a maximum of five years in prison and was reached a few hours before Rihanna was going to testify about how Brown hit her in February before the Grammy Awards. Instead, he will be on probation for five years and complete six months of “community labor.” Experts said the deal was consistent with similar cases, particularly for someone without a prior criminal record. But others were quick to say he received favorable treatment for being a celebrity. “Paris Hilton got more jail time than Chris Brown did for beating a woman to a pulp,” said the president of the National Organization for Women. “How could he not spend one day in jail?”